When Alline and Clarice were able, I used to like to take them for a ride over to the farm. Naturally their favorite place to see was the front porch at Ronald and Mary Lou’s house. But the visit was not complete until we came back and stopped at Donald’s front yard to look at “Kathy’s flowers.” Both Alline and Clarice love flowers, but this lawn/garden had special meaning because it was a reminder of the person who planted it, our sister-in-law Kathy.
We would just sit in the car and look and talk and remember. There was always something to admire, especially in the spring, when shrubs and trees were coming into bloom. My sisters always referred to any plant with blossoms as “Kathy’s flowers.” Maudine, another plant lover, also noticed Kathy’s green thumb. She said she used to enjoy talking to Kathy about her lilies and hostas. Some of those hostas have grown a lot since Kathy‘s passing, and they rejuvenate each year, providing a lovely way to remember a lovely person.
Gardening was not Kathy’s only interest. According to those people who sampled her wares most often, she was also a great cook. I have heard her son-in-law in particular brag about her delicious creations. Maudine has yet another memory. She recalls Kathy mostly as a wonderful friend, especially during the time right after she and Cleo had moved back to Casey County. Amy, (Nancy’s daughter and Alline’s granddaughter), likes to talk about how when she was little, Kathy would help her make crafts. Together they would sew things for Amy’s Christmas tree. But Amy also remembers Kathy’s sense of humor. She tells a story about one certain Halloween when Amy was still a little girl, Kathy urged her to be sure to come trick or treating. So on Halloween night, Nancy
brought her daughter to Kathy’s house just as promised. But there was a surprise in Kathy’s front yard. Amy, as well as her mom, were taken aback to see what they thought was a strange new yard decoration. It looked like a fake witch bent over a large black pot. But when the “witch” suddenly came to life, both Amy and her mom were shocked! Of course they soon recognized Kathy in her witch’s costume. They still laugh when they talk about that Halloween joke.
Anyone who knew Kathy at all would have said that she was very serious and committed in her Christian faith. It makes you wonder if it was her faith that helped her to have such a tender heart for God’s most under-appreciated little creatures, the forgotten small beings that the world doesn‘t value at all. “Everything wants to live,” I have heard Kathy say. Caring for nature‘s outcasts was probably her most unusual characteristic. This ability seemed to come natural to Kathy. She was famous for it.
I remember Dad saying more than once that he had never seen anyone who could nurse back to health tiny wild animals like Kathy. Even when the animal parent abandoned one of its own litter, Kathy would accept that baby and help it survive. Donald tells about one time when Kathy found a robin that the mother had pushed out of the nest. This little bird had been rejected because one of its legs was not developed fully. But Kathy accepted that little misfit and proceeded to raise it. Another time Kathy’s brother George brought her a very small rabbit, a mere infant, “about the size of a mouse“, Donald says. Kathy used a toy baby bottle and taught the rabbit to drink from it. When it was fully grown, Kathy and her family took it to a park and set it free. When Kathy had questions about what to feed some neglected baby animal, she didn’t hesitate to find the information she needed. She might call the zoo or a veterinarian to ask what foods a particular, young animal needed.
Just after Donald and Kathy first moved to Ragged Ridge, one of their neighbors had a goose and a gander that he no longer wanted. He told Kathy she could have the pair. Of course, she said, “Yes.” She drove the geese into the neighbor’s barn to catch them and brought them home. Pretty soon she had gathered enough goose eggs for a setting, and about a dozen goslings hatched. Can’t you imagine how Kathy must have just loved those fuzzy babies. But one of the dozen had a twisted leg which it could not use. Not to worry. Kathy got busy and built a tiny splint. Then next she built a sling with an attachment to the garage ceiling to support the weight of the gosling. Its webbed feet barely touched the ground, but it could manage to move around. Miraculously, Donald said, the gosling lived to grow up.
As I have thought about Kathy and her ability to understand just what a wild animal needed, my own memories of growing up on the farm came back to me. I thought of the baby animals that we had tried to rescue through the years. Usually it was a lamb which was left without its mother. Over and over we would attempt to care for those beautiful little orphans. But we were never successful. We lost all of them. As I have recalled those past experiences, I have wondered if Kathy had been part of the family then, could she have found a way to save those little sheep. I like to believe she would have understood how frightened and hungry and traumatized each would have felt, and that she would have won its trust. In her special way I think she would have calmly reassured it and said, “Of course, I’ll take care of you. You’re going to be all right.” Today on the anniversary of her birthday, it is our turn to remember Kathy herself with gentleness and appreciation.
Thank you for caring, Kathy.